Milburn issues a warning to Brown

The Chancellor wants his record on the economy to form the cornerstone of the campaign.

But Mr Milburn said simply "screaming louder and louder" about Labour's achievements in the past was not enough to win over cynical voters.

Tony Blair has handed Mr Milburn the role of masterminding Labour's election campaign. That is precisely the job Mr Brown has taken in the past, prompting renewed speculation of a rift with the Prime Minister.

At the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton Mr Milburn said: "In an atmosphere of greater cynicism and frankly more distrust, simply screaming louder and louder about our achievements in the past is not necessarily the way to get through to the public."

Delivering for the future

The former Health Secretary said Labour was right to tell people what it had delivered in the past. And he backed the Chancellor's demand to put his stewardship of the economy at the centre of that.

But he said that had to be combined with telling voters what another Labour government would deliver for them in the future.

Addressing the question of his relationship with Mr Brown, Mr Milburn said the media speculation was like a "soap opera".

He said he wanted to live in the "real world" of politics and not a world obsessed with "personality and glamour". He said the obsession with the latter was one of the reasons people were so disenchanted with politics.

Mr Milburn said Labour had to re-connect with the voters.

He said the public debate had shifted to foreign policy particularly Iraq, over the past two years.

"The public hasn't walked away from us in values terms," he said.

"What they need to know is that we haven't walked away from them. That means that we have to demonstrate through policy that we are on their side in the struggle in their lives."